News

Denying the Caliphate

—Brian Everstine7/22/2016

AFA Caption

Secretary of State John Kerry makes a
statement at a meeting of defense leaders from NATO and the coalition
to counter ISIS at the State
Department in Washington, D.C., July 21, 2016. Screenshot photo.

BodyText

​The coalition to fight ISIS is writing the history of counter terrorism as it works to displace ISIS and ensure that it no longer has a caliphate to boast, Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday. Kerry, speaking at the Meeting of the Defense Ministers of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, said the US-led coalition has reduced the ranks of ISIS by a third and taken back half of the territory it once claimed in Iraq. “We are engaged in a historic effort. … Nothing like this coalition has ever before been assembled,” Kerry said. The coalition needs to continue to push forward to the ISIS-held Iraqi city of Mosul and destroy the caliphate it claims in Iraq and Syria, which will help reduce any legitimacy the organization may claim. ISIS has “no basis whatsoever in religion, logic, history, or law,” Kerry said. The coalition on Thursday discussed additional funding to assist in the stabilization of areas where citizens have been displaced by ISIS because “it is vital citizens moving back into their homes feel safe,” Kerry said. The coalition, at the same time, needs to counter the spread of ISIS ideology that has manifested globally in the form of terror attacks in western countries such as France and Belgium, along with ISIS cells throughout the Middle East and Africa.